The Paul Simon Songbook was recorded in London. Simon made several trips to England in 1964 and '65, performing in small clubs and theatres. During 1965 he played in Paris, Haarlem and Copenhagen, along with London and other locations in the UK. In 1964, Simon and Art Garfunkel had released the folk-inspired album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. in the US. While Simon was touring and appearing on radio shows in England in 1965, he began to receive attention from fans. At the time Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. had not yet been released in Britain. Simon's other recordings then available in Britain consisted of three 45 rpm singles released on various labels, two of which were rock 'n' roll-inspired recordings with Garfunkel under the name Tom & Jerry. The other was representative of his experiments in folk but had been released in 1964 under the pseudonymPaul Kane. He was still under contract to Columbia, so he could record for their British label, CBS Records, and therefore decided to record a set of tracks for release to his folk audience. The Paul Simon Songbook was the result.
Recording and releases
Simon recorded the album at Levy's Recording Studio, 73 New Bond Street, London, over several dates in June 1965. Most of the songs required several takes. He only had one microphone for both his voice and his guitar. Two songs were re-recordings of songs originally found on Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.. Of the remaining songs, all but two would be subsequently re-recorded in studio versions by Simon and Garfunkel. The album was released along with the single "I Am a Rock/Leaves That Are Green", CBS 201797.
Artwork and notes
Simon's 1965 liner notes to the album comment of the songs that "there are some I would not write today," but that they "played a role in the transition" to his position as a musician at that time. The album cover shows Simon and his then-girlfriend, Kathy Chitty, sitting on "narrow streets of cobblestone" in London, the city Simon had adopted as his home. In the 1970s, the album art was altered: the picture of Simon and Kathy was flipped horizontally, and the red script-like lettering eliminated in favor of an album title in white block print at the top.
Subsequent history
The Songbook was released in the U.S. by Columbia very briefly in 1969, but was recalled within a few days when Simon objected. It was re-released in 1981 on Columbia LP in the "Collected Works" boxed set, and in 2004 by Columbia/Legacy on CD. The CD features two bonus tracks, alternative versions of "I Am a Rock" and "A Church is Burning" which were not part of the 1965 LP release. The mono version was released on CD. The lyrics for the anti-war song "The Side of a Hill" were incorporated into the Simon & Garfunkel arrangement of "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Later in 1965 and in early 1966, following the success in the U.S. of "The Sound of Silence" as a single, Simon & Garfunkel re-recorded several of the songs featured on The Paul Simon Songbook and released them on their albums Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
Track listing
* "Paul Kane" was a pseudonym used by Simon at this time, because of his fondness for the film Citizen Kane.
Other recordings
For earlier recordings of "The Sound of Silence" and "He Was My Brother": Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M..
For later recordings of "I Am a Rock", "Leaves That Are Green", "April Come She Will", "The Sound of Silence", "A Most Peculiar Man", and "Kathy's Song": Sounds of Silence.
For later recordings of "A Simple Desultory Philippic ", "Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall", and "Patterns": Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
For later recordings of "A Church is Burning": Live from New York City, 1967 and Old Friends, both live albums by Simon & Garfunkel.
